Larry Grant

Month: February 2016

To get a good workout without expensive gear, make use of what you have around the house. Finding a few minutes for these exercises will help maintain cardiac health, strength and balance as well as make you toned all over.

Flour Bag Lunge (targets legs, obliques, shoulders)

Lift a bag of flour to chest level. Step forward into a lunge with left foot. Twist torso to left, then return to front. Lift bag overhead, lower to chest, and step back to start. Repeat 10 times.

Towel Plank (targets quads, chest, arms, core)

Place a towel on the floor. Start in push-up position with feet on towel, hands on the floor. Bend knees and slide your feet toward your hands, Slide feet out to straighten legs. Repeat 10 times.

Water Bottle Twist (targets triceps, upper back)

Holding a full water bottle in each hand, stand with arms out to sides at shoulder height. Rotate shoulders forward, palms facing the wall behind you. Repeat 15 times.

If you’d like to do bench press training, without the cost of the bench, bar and weights, take an old broomstick, minus the bristles, and tie weighted socks to both ends and press away! Also, if you have any old iron plumbing pipes handy, those can be cut to the appropriate length and used without weights.

Homemade Step Aerobics

Select an unused, outdated phone book and use it for step aerobics. Get two or more if they are thin. Be sure to tie them up together using tape to ensure their stability and firmness. You don’t want the pages to flip when being used.

Plenty of household items can be used in ways different than their intended use and they make for excellent exercise equipment “substitutes” as long as you use your creativity and imagination. Exercise at home and reap the benefits without spending a bundle of money!

As the old saying goes, our eyes are the windows of our soul. Mood and feelings reflect through looking to one’s eyes. Their main functions, however, include seeing the things around us, appreciating the beauty of things and persons, promoting our safety, allowing us to move around, and keeping us away from danger.

These are the reasons why having a healthy set of eyes is very crucial. A 20/20 vision will not only alloq you to see things clearly, but will also help you live comfortably and safely.

But since the eyes are one of the most used body parts and are always exposed to air and sunlight, they are prone to dirt, germs, and diseases that will lead them to discomfort and even to signs or symptoms of a certain disease.

Don’t wait until your eyes give up on you. There are a lot of ways to maintain healthy eyes and improve your vision, and here are some.

Practice eating a balanced diet. Make it habit to eat green and yellow vegetables and fruits such as papaya, mango and carrots –because they are rich in Vitamin A.

Whenever you read, work, or simply sit in front of the computer, make sure to use proper lighting. Never work under a dim light as this strains the eyes.

Whenever your eyes get tired after hours of reading, watching TV, or looking at the computer screen, rest them for a few minutes by closing them to lubricate. Looking at trees or anything that is colored green also helps; doing it will sooth and cool your eyes.

When your eyes get irritated or itch, don’t touch or rub them to avoid the accumulation of germs. Instead, use an eye drop to cleanse your eyes.

Keep your hair in place so as not to cover or poke your eyes. Our hair carries dirt and germs that can cause conjunctivitis, a common eye infection.

Never wear eyeglasses that are not yours and not meant for you. If you have reading difficulties, consult an ophthalmologist to diagnose and treat your vision. Just the same, never let anyone use your eyeglasses.

Wear dark or green sunglasses to protect your eyes from glaring sunlight. Never wear pink and yellow (or any bright color) sunglasses to avoid strain and irritation of your eyes.

Eye shadows and other eye cosmetics are for personal use only. Eye applicator or brush is a carrier of germs that can be passed from one person’s eyes to another.

Have you tried engaging in two or more sports and actually excelling in both or all? Try cross training. You might be actually good at it!

If you wish to better your performance in your chosen sport, maybe the best thing is to take up another. This technique, known in fitness circles as cross training, has been used for a long time by many great athletes in furthering their performance. Cross training, in essence, means engaging in two or more sports activities in a routine. Support for this kind of training is provided by many studies that assert that combining sports or exercises improve performance, and correspond to many health benefits.

In a 1995 study, golfers who performed 15 lifting exercises and six stretches thrice a week for a period of eight weeks increased their golf swing by five miles an hour, which corresponds for a six percent improvement. What makes the study more amazing was the participants retained their old golfing ways, playing the same times as before. Participants also lost three pounds of fat, added four pounds of muscle, and increased their overall strength by 56%. In a separate study made by researchers in the University of New Hampshire, runners who used weights for 10 weeks had a five percent performance boost, which was enough to improve their running times by an average of 20 seconds.

Cross training also offers more benefits than better athletic performance. Athletes who cross train are in less risk for injuries, and recover faster from them. It also removes monotony in an exercise routine, thereby adding spice to an otherwise dull and boring set.

Maximizing the benefits of cross training requires smart exercising on the part of the individual. He must know the muscle groups his sport trains, and use this information to vary his exercises. If one is a cyclist, one uses his legs more. Hence, it is useful to incorporate upper body exercises. Simply put, one could vary his sports activities by taking time out to do other things. One can swim, run, and play another sport. He can even work out at home if you ask me.

Cross training could work wonders for your athletic performance, so better start your own routine today.